Oman approves BP’s Khazzan project

16 December 2013, News Wires – The government of Oman has approved a gas sales agreement and amended a production sharing agreement with BP for the development of the country’s Khazzan field, the company reported Monday.

The government approval signals that the project can now go-ahead. BP said construction work for the Khazzan project will begin in 2014 with first gas expected in 2017 and a ramp-up to plateau production in 2018.

The full field development will see a drilling program of some 300 wells over 15 years that will deliver peak production of one billion cubic feet of gas per day and 25,000 barrels per day of gas condensate.

BP noted that this volume is equivalent to around one-third of Oman’s total daily domestic gas supply.

BP Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley said in a company statement released Monday: “We are very pleased to be going ahead with this major project, which is very important for both Oman and for BP.

This enables BP to bring to Oman the experience it has built up in tight gas production over many decades. This is one more example of BP developing a long term gas supply chain, in this case to bring energy to customers in Oman for decades to come.”

In a recent interview with Rigzone, Anand RV, BP’s vice president of human resources for its Middle East exploration operations, explained that 5,000 workers and engineers will be needed to develop the project with 150 BP-trained Omani technicians used to run it in the long term.

“They will go through a very structured five-year induction and training program, which will include attending a training center in Oman that we have just set up,” RV said.